Here are details of those stories, plus others we have in the works for today and notable pieces that we sent in the past 10 hours:

WORLD

UKRAINE - The mayor of Ukraine's second-largest city is shot in the back and pro-Russia insurgents seize yet another government building as tensions rise in eastern Ukraine ahead of a new round of U.S. sanctions. SENT: 780 words, photos. UPCOMING: 850 words by 1700 GMT.

SLOVAKIA-UKRAINE-GAS -- Slovakia signs a deal to deliver natural gas to Ukraine, which is facing the threat of a cut-off in supplies from Russia because of a massive debt. SENT: 350 words.

GERMANY-UKRAINE - The German government is decrying the seizure of European military observers by pro-Russian militants in eastern Ukraine as an act of "hostage taking" and is calling for their immediate release. SENT: 130 words.

ETHIOPIA-TEEN STOWAWAY - The Somali woman's home is a small makeshift tent with a frame of sticks covered by ragged blankets on the dusty grounds of a refugee camp. It is to her that her son, a 15-year-old Somali boy who lives in California, wanted to travel to on an impossible journey as a stowaway on a plane. Tears stream down Ubah Mohammed Abdule's face as she describes her son's love for her and how she longs to see him. UPCOMING: 750 words, photos.

SYRIA - President Bashar Assad announces his candidacy for the June 3 presidential elections, a race he is likely to win amid a raging civil war that began as an uprising against his rule. SENT: 360 words, photos.

PHILIPPINES-US MILITARY -- The U.S. military will get greater access to bases across the Philippines under a 10-year agreement signed in conjunction with President Barack Obama's visit in a deal seen as an effort by Washington to counter Chinese aggression in the region. SENT: 860 words, photos.

PHILIPPINES-HUMAN RIGHTS -- President Benigno Aquino III pushes back against criticism that his government has done too little to address extrajudicial killings of journalists and others. SENT: 130 words, photos.

SKOREA-SHIP SINKING - Divers renew their search for more than 100 bodies still trapped in a sunken ferry after weekend efforts were hindered by bad weather, strong currents and floating debris clogging the ship's rooms. Investigators, meanwhile, expand a probe into how coast guard and other rescuers responded after learning the ferry was sinking. SENT: 1,100 words, photos.

SKOREA-SHIP SINKING-VOLUNTEERS - The mother, slightly drunk, sits on the edge of a windblown dock and wails. A Buddhist monk approaches and wipes the tears from her face as she pours out her grief and longing for her missing son. He leads her away from the dock's edge and, as she weeps, chants Buddhist scriptures for her son's return. The monk is one member of an impromptu city of volunteers that has sprung up to help with South Korea's ferry disaster. More than 16,000 people have come to help. SENT: 1,100 words, photos.

MALAYSIA-PLANE - The underwater hunt for the missing Malaysia Airlines jet will be expanded to include a massive swath of ocean floor that may take up to eight months to thoroughly search, Australia's prime minister says. SENT: 740 words, photos.

INDIA-TAKING ON INDUSTRY - The man walked into Ramesh Agrawal's tiny Internet cafe, pulled out a pistol and hissed, "You talk too much." Then he fired two bullets into Agrawal's left leg and fled on a motorcycle. The 2012 attack came three months after Agrawal won a court case that blocked a major Indian company, Jindal Steel & Power Ltd., from opening a second coal mine near the village of Gare in the mineral-rich state of Chhattisgarh. SENT: 1,200 words, photos.

UGANDA-ISRAEL-DEPORTED CHILDREN - Speak no Hebrew. That's what Ugandan teachers repeatedly tell dozens of South Sudanese teenagers enrolled at school here. But Hebrew is the language they grew up with as refugees. Now, some 70 South Sudanese teenagers are in Uganda, their new home as Israel tries to rid itself of tens of thousands of African migrants who authorities say are threatening Israel's Jewish character. SENT: 800 words, photos.

PAKISTAN - Two bombings kill three soldiers and as many seminary students in Pakistan. SENT: 300 words.

ENVIRONMENT PRIZE - Six environmental advocates from India, Peru, Russia and three other nations have win his year's Goldman Prize, which is awarded annually for grass-roots activism. SENT: 310 words, photos.

MALAYSIA-TERROR SUSPECTS -Nine suspected Malaysian militants are detained for allegedly planning to carry out terrorist acts in the country and abroad, police say. SENT: 190 words.

CHINA-CAR CRASHING - A man distressed by his divorce case rams a car into electric scooters and pedestrians near a school in southeastern China, killing six people, including three children, according to police and state media. SENT: 230 words.

SOUTH AFRICA-DEMOCRACY - South Africa's president urges voters to head to the polls next week in the spirit of "democracy and freedom" as he unveils a large bronze bust of the country's most famous anti-apartheid leader Nelson Mandela in front of Parliament. SENT: 340 words, photos.

POLAND-REMEMBERING-HOLOCAUST - Thousands of young Jews from around the world are marching between the two parts of the Auschwitz-Birkenau Nazi German death camp in Poland in memory of Holocaust victims. SENT: 140 words.

ISRAEL-HOLOCAUSE - Israelis stop in their tracks, standing in silence as sirens pierced the air to remember the 6 million Jews who perished in the Nazi Holocaust during World War II. SENT: 130 words, photos.

MYANMAR-KIDS AT SEA - The two children stood on the beach, at the end of the only world they knew, torn between land and sea. They couldn't go back to their tiny Muslim village in Myanmar's northwest Rakhine because it had been devoured in a fire set by an angry Buddhist mob. In the smoke and chaos, the siblings became separated from their family. And after seven months of searching, they had lost hope of finding anyone alive. SENT: 2,600 words, photos. An abridged version is also available.

CENTRAL AFRICAN REPUBLIC-AID WORKERS - Dozens of heavily armed Muslim rebels opened fire inside a hospital in a remote corner of Central African Republic, killing at least 16 people including three local health workers employed by the international aid group, Doctors Without Borders, officials said Monday.

ETHIOPIA-JOURNALISTS-ARRESTED - Rights groups are calling on Ethiopia's government to release six bloggers and three journalists arrested last week. SENT: 130 words.

CHINA-EXPLOSIONS - Chinese man gets death sentence for explosions outside party office in northern city that killed one person and injured 17. SENT: 190 words.

SPAIN-CERVANTES' BONES - Team that will search for writer Miguel de Cervantes's remains begins exploratory work in Madrid. SENT: 680 words.

ENVIRONMENT PRIZE - Six environmental advocates from India, Peru, Russia and three other nations win his year's Goldman Prize, which is awarded annually for grass-roots activism. SENT: 310 words, photo.

WASHINGTON

UNITED STATES-RUSSIA - The United States levies new sanctions on seven Russian government officials, as well as 17 companies with links to Vladimir Putin, as the Obama administration seeks to pressure the Russian leader to deescalate the crisis in Ukraine. The new penalties are a response to what U.S. officials say is Russia's failure to live up to commitments it agreed to under an international accord aimed at ending the dispute. The White House says Russia's involvement in the recent violence in eastern Ukraine is indisputable and warns that the U.S. and its partners were prepared to impose deeper penalties if Russia's provocations continue. President Barack Obama announced the sanctions while traveling in the Philippines, the last stop on a weeklong trip to Asia. SENT: 250 words. UPCOMING: Will be updated with details; 750 words by 11 a.m., photos.

OBAMA - Launching a vigorous defense of his foreign policy record, President Barack Obama contends that he has succeeded in avoiding "errors" and accuses his critics of failing to learn the lessons of a "disastrous" decade of war. Obama's comments at the end of a weeklong tour of Asia reflect White House frustration with the growing narrative that the president is weak and ineffectual on the world stage. UPCOMING: 750 words by 1700 GMT photos, video.

SUPREME COURT-CELLPHONE SEARCHES - Two Supreme Court cases about police searches of cellphones without warrants present vastly different views of the ubiquitous device. Is it a critical tool for a criminal or is it an American's virtual home? SENT: 950 words, photo.

US

SEVERE WEATHER - Three years after a tornado devastated the Little Rock suburb of Vilonia, its residents again huddled in storm cellars as the most powerful twister this year carved an 80-mile path of destruction through suburbs north of the state capital, killing at least 16 people. SENT: 1,100 words, photos, video. UPCOMING: Will be updated with details from the scene.

CONGRESSMAN-FEDERAL PROBE - U.S. Rep. Michael Grimm is taken into custody to face federal charges stemming from a two-year investigation of his campaign financing. SENT: 545 words, photo. UPCOMING: Will be updated from 11 a.m. EDT news conference.

PLANES COLLIDE OVER BAY - Crews search the northern part of San Francisco Bay for a pilot after two small planes collide, sending one aircraft crashing into the water while the other safely reached its destination. SENT: 350 words. UPCOMING: 450 word, photos by 3 p.m.

DRIVERLESS CARS-GOOGLE - Google says it has turned a corner in its pursuit of a car that can drive itself. In a blog entry, the project's leader said test cars now can handle thousands of urban situations that would have stumped them a year or two ago. SENT: 800 words, photos. UPCOMING 750 words by 3 p.m.

FBI-RAID-MINNESOTA - A militia member indicted in what the FBI once characterized as a terror plot to blow up a Minnesota police station is facing sentencing. SENT: 140 words.

BUSINESS

AP ECONOMY SURVEY - Just as the global economy has all but recovered from debt-fueled crises in the United States and Europe, economists have a new worry: China. They see a lending bubble there that threatens global growth unless Beijing defuses it. That's the view that emerges from an Associated Press survey this month of more than 30 economists. UPCOMING: 950 words by 1600 GMT.

APPLE-SAMSUNG TRIAL - The high-stakes battle between the world's largest smartphone makers is scheduled to wrap up this week after a monthlong trial that has pulled the curtain back on just how very cutthroat the competition is between Apple and Samsung. SENT: 470 words, photos.

FRANCE-ALSTOM - The French president is open to the idea of a proposed merger between Alstom and General Electric Co., officials close to the talks say. SENT: 400 words, photos.

NETHERLANDS-PHILIPS-GIBSON - Dutch technology company Philips says it has struck a deal with music company Gibson Brands of the U.S. to sell its audiovisual equipment business for $135 million. SENT: 140 words.

PENDING HOME SALES - More Americans signed contracts to buy homes in March, the first increase since June and a sign that the housing market may pick up after a sluggish start to the year. SENT: 130 words.

SPORTS

CLIPPERS-STERLING-SILVER - Facing the first real crisis of his short tenure as NBA commissioner, Adam Silver is under pressure to swiftly bring some sort of resolution to the scandal surrounding Clippers owner Donald Sterling and the racially charged comments he allegedly made in a recorded conversation. SENT: 870 words, photos, video.

CLIPPERS-WARRIORS - The Los Angeles Clippers make a silent protest against owner Donald Sterling before Game 4 of their Western Conference playoff series against Golden State. SENT: 950 words, photos.